


Almost Free

by i_write_a_lot



Category: Almost Human, White Collar
Genre: Almost Human Fusion, Cops, Futuristic, Gen, Humans, Neal as a Robot, Other - Freeform, Robots, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-25
Updated: 2014-01-25
Packaged: 2018-01-10 00:34:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1152691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_write_a_lot/pseuds/i_write_a_lot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neal’s a robot-one of the crazy ones. Peter’s his human.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Almost Free

“His name is Neal. Neal Caffrey. But he goes by a bunch of other names too. One of his favorite handles is Nick Haldon,” Mozzie told him, as he was uncovering the robot that was laying on the table. 

Peter peered at the robot with interest, frowning when he saw how…handsome…the robot looked. How lifelike. 

Totally not what he was expecting.

“He has a last name?” Peter asked, registering that fact. 

“At his insistence. To appear as lifelike as possible. He’s convinced he’s human, even if his body is made up mostly of machinery.” Mozzie said with a shrug, and glanced up at Peter. 

“You want him or not?”

Peter, to this day, still had no idea why he’d said what he’d said. 

“Yeah. Yeah I want him.”

Mozzie grinned.  
*

The next few days would be one of unexpected humor, grim situations, and dedication unlike any that he’d ever experienced before. 

Neal was a charming conman. 

Mozzie hadn’t said anything about that when introducing him to the ‘bot, but then again maybe Peter shouldn’t have been so surprised. 

Neal could charm little kids into giving away candy-not that he did. Neal showed him how old technology could be useful again. Neal taught him that maybe not all robots were bad robots. Neal certainly exceeded his expectations in what he was thinking of when getting a ‘bot. He acted almost like a real partner.

Then they had more cases.

Cases where there was a guy that would use human skin and put them onto robots to make them more lifelike. 

Cases where Peter had been kidnapped, and then had a bomb strapped to his neck because of some kid who just wanted to be famous, to have people pay attention to him…

Cases that were so bizarre and-sometimes rather fun.

And all the while, Peter and Neal would keep trusting each other, watching each others backs. While it was something that was hardwired specifically into Neal’s programming, 

Peter figured that had Neal been human, he would’ve done the same thing anyway…

Because they were partners. 

“One day I’m going to-”

“Become a real boy?” Peter asked with a smirk on his face. Neal scowled at him. Peter sighed. “Sorry, bud, I know.”

“You don’t know. Because you’re already human. How can you know?” Neal snapped, looking irate as they were driving down the freeway, heading to work.

“Listen,” Peter said, suddenly. “How about Mozzie makes some work on your programming? Make you as human as he possibly can-”

“It’s not the same thing. Sure I’d be almost human. But that’s the same thing as being almost free.” He said glumly. 

And to that, Peter had nothing. 

But in the end, it wouldn’t matter. The two would be closer than any sort of partnership that Peter had ever had before. And, in part, that scared Peter. But it also gave him hope. 

Hope that one day, he and Neal would get exactly what they’ve always wanted.

Freedom.  
~*~

End


End file.
